When Jose Mourinho took the head coaching job at Real Madrid, one of his first demands was a pre-season trip to the United States of America. The man loves our country and the Southern California sun in particular. It’s hard for a fan of the US National team not to salivate over the thought of Mourinho, the Bill Belichick of soccer coaching, taking over as head coach.
I think the Phil Jackson of soccer would be a better analogy. He typically has tons of talent Nd organizes of well. He hasn’t built a team since Porto.
I’m going to disagree with the Phil Jackson analogy. Mourinho writes up 200 page treatises on lesser opponents, not something the Zen master gets into much, I suspect. By the way, I didn’t come up with the Belichick analogy myself. I think that’s called plagarism; I should stop that. Anyway, Mourinho teams are always superbly organized, even in a pre-season game against Club America last year which I saw in person.
I’m willing to table the discussion for now, but if Jose gets Madrid to play defense, he’s Phil Jackson. Who else can get the Lakers to play D.